Email can be a goldmine for businesses that use it ethically and effectively. The medium is so versatile as a communications tool, it can accomplish virtually any marketing and sales task: prospecting, lead nurturing, making direct sales, and many other possibilities.
Here, we’ll discuss 5 email marketing campaign ideas that can take your business where you want it to go.
1. Lead Generation Campaign
One of the most powerful ways to use email marketing is to generate new leads. Well thought-out, trustworthy messages to prospects can make sudden inroads and lead to lucrative deals. Keep these best practices in mind for cold outreach:
- Be super-targeted in your approach. While it’s OK to use templates to guide the structure of your emails, they should always read as if they were written from scratch — just for the individual reading it. A great way to ensure personalization is to use a tool like Drift, which captures specific user insights by tracking their behavior on your website.
- Open with relevance and close with value. In the subject line and beginning of the email, call out something relevant to the reader, such as a specific pain point. Then, provide strong hints about your product’s benefits; a one-sentence case study works well. Close with a brief call-to-action, offering helpful, personalized content or a phone consultation.
- Follow up. The sale is usually in the follow-up. Send at least 2 or 3 follow-up emails to prospects who don’t respond right away to improve ROI.
2. Newsletter
Email newsletters are an excellent opportunity to be helpful to your audience while keeping your brand and offers top-of-mind. Here are some important tips:
Plan out what content will be most engaging. Consider what kinds of info your audience will enjoy receiving regularly. For example, driven, self-motivated professionals will likely enjoy up-to-date news about their industry.
- Segment your newsletters. Newsletters work best when targeted. Create multiple newsletters and segment by buyer persona, purchase history, and website behavior.
- Personalize each message. Using personalization tokens can help. Dale Carnegie said it best: “A person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” Send original emails as well to especially-qualified leads.
Read more on email newsletter ideas
3. Product Launch
When you launch a new product line or a big addition to your services, you might not know how to make a huge splash…but you can, if you generate demand and interest throughout the process. Keep these tips in mind:
- During the pre-launch phase, get them excited. Plan out how many emails you’ll send leading up to the launch (your product’s size, complexity, and price are big factors). Reward social media mentions and shares, perhaps with contests or giveaways, to create brand awareness.
- On launch day, deliver on the promise. Show that your product lives up to the hype. Your sales email and webpage should show every way your product meets — and exceeds — expectations.
- Post-launch, continue the relationship. You might segment recipients to different email newsletters or another follow-up mechanism, based on how they respond to your product launch. Good tactics include sharing amazing testimonials from early-bird buyers or offering special deals.
4. Surveys and Customer Feedback
One of the smartest, yet most-neglected, digital marketing strategies is to solicit feedback from your customers. The knowledge you gain can completely revolutionize your content and sales. Here are our tips for getting the most useful intel:
- Think about what you need to know. Look at your marketing priorities (Improving content click-through rates? Assessing customer satisfaction?) and figure out what kind of intelligence will help address those things.
- Tell them what to expect. If the survey will take just 3 minutes of their time, let them know. Your customers appreciate knowing what they’re in for.
- It can be as simple as a discount or a partial giveaway of your product. If you can give away something good, do it (especially for longer surveys or ones that require typed answers)…more often than not, the feedback is worth it.
5. Blogger and Influencer Outreach
Want to spark sudden interest in your business? Get a major influencer or blogger on your side. With a powerful voice behind your products, your brand can suddenly leap leagues ahead of others in your space. Here’s how to get there with email:
- Choose the right influencers, and know what you want. Pick the influencers that your target audience listens to and follows on a regular basis…don’t just chase after any old celebrity. Additionally, knowing how much of a partnership you want will help focus your outreach.
- Be incredibly personal, and give incredible value. Influencers are super-busy. To grab their attention, do something awesome for them, often without even asking them first. Focus on the uniqueness and CTA of your first email — and definitely follow up.
- Set mutually-beneficial terms. Whether you want a simple mention or an enduring partnership, make sure you agree on content that will enhance each party’s visibility and public profile.
There you have it — 5 sneak-previews into the wonderful world of email marketing campaigns, each one containing some great promise for your brand. Use one or more of these strategies and score some new wins for your business this year.
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